And the Liverpool Echo's Catherine Jones tweeted: "Did you just link what happened at West Ham last night with Hillsborough?!!!!!"

Only two weeks ago, the Hillsborough Inquest found that the 96 fans had been unlawfully killed and that violence or hooliganism was not a factor.

Holmes has now apologised, saying: "For the record there is no comparison between events last night at West Ham and Hillsborough. On the programme I was trying to talk about images we never ever want to see again.